Meltdown
by bcbdrums
Summary: Drakken felt an instinctual panic and forced himself up to his knees, looking around the ship wildly until he saw the alien standing right next to Shego holding a device meant to give injections. "It is due to the False One that our greatest warrior was defeated," the alien said, pressing the device to Shego's neck. She screamed in pain. "You will bear witness as she is destroyed!"


_**A/N: This fic was from a Tumblr request. Can't say more on that without spoilers, but I'll add it at the end. This is again, a Drakken and Shego centric story. A post-canon 'what happened next' AU sort of thing. This was a speed-write with only a check for typos before posting, so if it's not at my usual standard...meh. Hope you enjoy!**_

_**The glorious cover image used with permission is by hotrod2001 on deviantART. Remove the spaces and obvious typo in this link to view it in full: deviantart. kom/ hotrod2001/art/Critical-Mass-618585433**_

* * *

Drakken sat down uncertainly on the large sofa in the penthouse suite of the hotel in Midtown Manhattan. Shego had taken to the place immediately and had gone to her room, tired from the party she had said. But Drakken wasn't quite ready to trust himself to sleep in the world of the good guys.

He flipped on the big screen TV and wasn't the least bit surprised to see the local news showing clips from his award ceremony at the UN earlier that day. He frowned as the news anchor mentioned his real name, but only had a moment to be upset as the image shifted to his mutant vine wrapping around he and Shego. The reporter suggested with a horrible pun that perhaps romance was blooming between the former villains.

_Former villains..._ He wasn't sure he wanted to be a former villain yet. But he definitely owed Shego an apology for the vine incident. They'd been so busy with interviews and a catered dinner with ambassadors and a party that lasted far too long into the evening, that he'd barely had a moment alone with her since that moment on the stage.

He flipped off the TV, rose from the sofa, and crossed the suite to knock on her bedroom door.

"Shego? Are you still awake?"

To his surprise, the door opened in seconds and she stood not in pajamas but in her green and black harlequin suit.

"Yeah? What do you want?" she asked blandly, her hand still on the doorknob.

Drakken fidgeted. "Um... Do you...want to come out here?"

She lifted an eyebrow. "Why?"

He bit his lip. He supposed it was best to get it over with. "I wanted to say sorry for the flower earlier today. I didn't tell it to do that. It just...it has a mind of its own."

"Mhmm. Well, you'd better get that thing under control sooner than later."

He expected her door to close after that, but she was still standing just inside the frame. She crossed her arms as she looked at him. Was he supposed to say something else?

"So...eh heh, yes. Sorry."

Something in her eyes softened. "Look, Dr. D.—"

Just then a blinding light illuminated the inside of Shego's room and the living area behind him. He turned and rushed to the terrace doors with Shego on his heels.

The penthouse suite they were staying in, courtesy of the UN, had a large terrace overlooking Central Park. They rushed out into the darkness and were met with a chorus of screams from people below and a scarily familiar sight in the greenery beyond.

"They're back..." Shego breathed.

Drakken stared at the menacing red and black invasion robots of the Lorwardians in complete shock. It hadn't even been a week. Hadn't his plants stopped all of them? And hadn't Stoppable killed the two invaders?

"But...but I thought I destroyed them!" he stuttered.

"Yeah, I think these are new ones," Shego said, pointing up. They both tilted their heads back and saw the telltale reflection of a ship in low orbit around the Earth, fixed over their position.

"But why...how...!"

"Forget that. Come on, we'd better do something," Shego said, grabbing his shoulder and pulling him to the edge of the balcony.

"'We'd better...'?" he said fearfully.

Shego rolled her eyes. "Doy, you saved the world last time. They'll expect you to save it this time. Now come on!"

"Yaaaaaaaahhh!" Drakken wailed as Shego leapt off the balcony carrying him over her shoulder as she went. When they landed the momentum sent him rolling off of her. He came to a stop several feet away with several body parts throbbing. "That hurt!" he shouted as he stood and dusted himself off.

"If you hadn't been flailing you could have landed on your feet," Shego said, her hands already flared with her luminescent green glow. "You got your vine-thing ready?"

"Uhm..."

"Good, let's go!"

Shego took off running and Drakken scampered after her. He watched in awe as she leapt with confidence toward the closest robot and sent a massive blast of her green glow at the joint of one leg. The joint melted and the bot fell to the ground with a deafening crash. He covered his head in fear, but then upon hearing another familiar blast he looked up to see Shego atop the fallen robot, a glowing fist thrust into its control center and effectively deactivating it.

"Come on, Doc!" she shouted to him as she jumped down and hurried toward the oncoming robots.

He swallowed his fear and hurried after her. This time there were two coming at them side-by-side. Shego pulled the same leg-severing move on one, and he nervously commanded his flower to attack the other one. The vine exited his body and yanked him forward until he was practically beneath the menacing invasion weapon, and he cowered in fear again. But then as if on instinct, the vine swirled around the legs of the bot and the alien device fell of its own accord. He stumbled back to avoid being crushed and felt a sharp pull down his spine as the vine was pinched beneath the heap.

"Flower, attack the control center!" he cried, pointing to the robot's brain. The vine obediently unraveled from around the steel legs and wrapped around the saucer part of the bot until it was crushed. Again, Drakken felt the sharp pull down his spine. He supposed it made sense that his own vine had limits.

"Hey, what!? Dr. D., help!"

Drakken turned so fast at the sound of Shego's cry that he hit his neck against his own taut vine and fell to the ground, feet up in the air. As he sat up he saw Shego struggling in an anti-gravity beam exactly like the one that had abducted him, pulling her up into a small ship that was hovering above.

"Eh, um. Flower, get Shego!"

The vine was still wrapped around the alien bot and though it was quickly unraveling, he could see that it wasn't going to be fast enough. He jumped to his feet and ran toward the beam, climbing the remains of a fallen bot in an attempt to get closer to her.

His wide, frightened eyes locked on hers, equally wide and desperate. But it was clear in moments that he couldn't get to her. He stopped and fell to his knees in despair just as the pink flower shot past his ear and up into the beam. He stood up, hope rising within him again as the vine stretched higher and higher. Shego reached down toward it, straining against the pull of the alien device.

Drakken felt the sharp pull against his spine again. The vine had reached its limit. But it was so close!

"Ngh, go higher flower!" he shouted, and even as he did he felt a searing pain across his entire back as the vine attempted to obey.

He fell to his knees and the vine, perhaps in self-preservation, began to retreat. This time as it re-entered his body he could feel the tendrils slinking against his muscles as they found their apparent places. But his eyes were focused on Shego as she became a smaller and smaller speck in the alien beam until she was gone. The beam deactivated and the ship sped away into the atmosphere.

Drakken stared in fear until the sound of one of the alien robots brought him back to Earth. He fell to the ground and crawled beneath the remains of another as one of them began walking over him, firing its weapons toward the civil defense forces gathered on the adjacent street.

He should help. But what if the things...killed him? He couldn't remember the last time he actually fought anything without Shego.

But if they won, he certainly wouldn't be seeing her again. He took a deep breath and crawled out from under the wreckage.

"Flower, take them down!"

* * *

It was less than an hour later that Drakken stood panting in a ruined Central Park, trees in flames and monuments shattered by the wrath of the Lorwardian walkers. But they had been stopped. _He_ had stopped them.

Civilians and peace officers were surrounding him, praising him and clapping him on the shoulder for his good deeds. But his eyes were fixed on the stars.

How could he get to Shego? He could steal a rocket— No, then the world would turn against him.

Would the world give him a rocket? No, that would be a waste of time and manpower and...everything.

He realized he was being ushered toward an ambulance by two police officers, but he suddenly shrugged them off as he began pawing at his pockets for his cell phone. There _was_ someone who could help. Someone who could do anything.

* * *

In a small motel in Middleton, Jim and Tim Possible slept soundly on the cheap sofa while Kim and her dad watched the news, the TV's volume down low. Ann Possible opened the microwave and took out three cups of tea and joined her husband and daughter on the sofa, handing them their steaming beverages.

"I need to wake Ron," Kim said, her brow furrowed in worry.

"Now Kimmie-cub, let's wait for the next update. So far the only attack has been in New York."

"That doesn't mean it isn't going to be another world-wide invasion!"

"Kimmie, please try to see it from our perspective. It hasn't even been a week since those aliens kidnapped you," Ann chimed in.

"And the reporters said that your former nemesis is there fighting them. They may not need you and Ronald," James added.

"I know, but—"

The Kimmunicator beeped on Kim's wrist, and she quickly sat forward and answered the call.

"Wade, do they need Ron in New York?" she asked before the screen had fully loaded her younger friend's image.

_"No actually, the alien threat has been neutralized."_

Kim's eyes widened. "Oh."

_"But you do have an urgent call for help. I'll patch you through."_

The image changed to reveal the silhouette of a familiar face, barely visible due to the wall of flames behind.

"Dr. Drakken? Is that you?"

_"Kim Possible. They took Shego!"_

Kim looked between her parents, who leaned in to watch the call.

_"I don't...I don't know what to do. Except...ask...if you, my one-time foe... Can you...will you...help me get her back?"_

Kim could make out the fear in his dark eyes. She looked up at her dad again, who had gone wide-eyed. She would need _his_ help first if she were to answer Drakken's call.

James Possible leaned in so Drakken could see him in the frame. "Can you get to Middleton?"

_"Oh. James Possible. Yes, yes I'm sure I can."_

"Then meet us at the Middleton Space Center. It's amazingly still intact."

_"Oh thank you, thank you! I'll make this up to you, you won't regret it."_

"See you when you get here," Kim said, and hung up. She looked at her dad again.

"I guess you should wake Ronald after all."

* * *

_"The aliens known as the Lorwardians have not attacked again since the assault on Central Park early last night. World leaders are baffled as to why the attack was so localized, and the hero of the hour, Drew Lipsky a.k.a. Dr. Drakken disappeared almost immediately after single-handedly thwarting the attack. It is unknown where he has gone or why."_

Drakken switched off the radio as he landed the hovercraft on the helipad at the Middleton Space Center. He could explain himself to the world later, _after_ Shego was safe. As he disembarked the craft, approaching familiar voices drew his attention.

"...Yeah, but what if the power doesn't work, KP? I haven't been able to...switch it on since graduation."

"You'll be fine, Ron. Maybe it just needs a big enough threat for you to use it."

"Heh, I could definitely use some built-in responsibility..."

Drakken watched the blond teen rub the back of his neck shyly as he approached with Kim Possible. He looked as he always did, but Kimberly Ann was wearing that white and blue battle suit that made her almost a match for Shego. He supposed it was warranted.

"Hello, Drakken," Kim greeted.

"Mm. Miss Possible." He wasn't entirely sure how to talk to someone he had hated for so long, and still felt a resentment toward.

Kim seemed to read him just fine. "My dad has the rocket ready. We need to put on space suits. Let's go."

She quickly turned and Stoppable looked after her for just a moment before following. Drakken fell in step beside him a moment later.

"What's this I hear about your...monkey style not working anymore?"

"It's 'Mystical Monkey Power' thank you very much. And...I'm sure it's just fine," the teen answered with less confidence than Drakken would have liked.

"Well, I've mastered my new plant powers," he gloated, crossing his arms.

At that moment, yellow petals burst around his head.

"Sure you have," Kim called back over her shoulder. "But let's focus. Why just Shego? Why not you, or Ron for that matter? It was the two of you who stopped them, not Shego."

"I have no idea," Drakken said, shaking his head with a frown as he yanked out the petals.

"It's clearly some type of revenge," Kim continued. "But we won't know what until we get there."

"Maybe...they're harnessing Shego's power for some sort of super weapon!" Ron cried.

"Their weapons are already better than ours. That doesn't make sense," Kim said.

Drakken kept silent, wondering about that. He recalled watching tanks fire at the walkers in Central Park and having no effect whatsoever, except to rain sparks down on the landscape. But Shego's power had taken them down effortlessly.

Perhaps there was something to the buffoon's speculation.

* * *

It was less than twenty minutes later that the three of them, plus James Possible piloting the space ship, were approaching the all-too familiar menace of a large Lorwardian craft.

"All right, so we go in and look for Shego. Don't get sidetracked," Kim instructed once the ship had sneaked in via the garbage port and they had disembarked. James Possible stayed behind in case they needed a quick getaway. "Follow my lead and watch out for booby traps!"

They crept along familiar hallways, the Earth below a radiant blue and white as clouds billowed above its surface. Drakken swallowed nervously and paused to look out the window, hoping they would find Shego quickly and he could get his feet back on solid ground again.

Just then a beeping sounded to his left and above. He spun around and saw a camera bot focused directly on him.

"Drakken!" Kim shouted in annoyance, and with a flying kick she took out the small device.

"Aaaaahhh!" the former-villain shouted as a trapdoor opened beneath his feet and he began sliding down a narrow chute.

"Come on, Ron!" Drakken heard from above, and then the tell-tale whine of Stoppable as he was apparently pushed into the chute as well. Drakken felt a sense of relief knowing that at least he wouldn't be alone to meet his fate.

He finally fell out of the chute, and moments later Stoppable landed atop him, definitely injuring his back. He blinked and noticed they were in a large room, dimly lit, with all manner of alien equipment pumping and sparking and creating quite the evil atmosphere. If the Lorwardians weren't his enemy, Drakken would really appreciate it.

Stoppable started to stand, and in the process put a knee in the mad scientist's back.

"Nygh, watch it!" Drakken growled.

"Hey, you're the one who stopped to look out the window and got us caught!"

"He did nothing extraordinary. I was expecting you," a familiar voice spoke from high above them.

Drakken and Ron looked up to first see Kim standing in a fighting stance in front of them, and directly in front of her was an extremely familiar green alien amazon woman.

"Warmonga!?" Drakken cried, scrambling backward.

"Alas no, Lorwardia's greatest warrior is slain. I am Warmaven!"

Ron glanced down at his pet naked mole rat, who had crept up inside his space suit collar. "Warmonga...Warhok...Warmaven... You know, I'm sensing a pattern here."

"No, you think?" Kim called over her shoulder.

"Warmonga was my sister," the alien said, stepping past Kim and Ron with her eyes fixed on Drakken, "and you, blue imposter..." she whirled then and pointed a finger at Ron, "and _you_ greater blue imposter, will pay for her defeat!"

"No, no see, you've got it all wrong," Ron said, standing to his feet confidently, "I _am_ the Great Blue!"

"Yup, Great Blue!" Rufus agreed from inside Ron's collar.

"Bah! Warmaven will not be fooled so easily!" the alien said, turning and heading back into the room. "Lorwardia's greatest warrior may have been defeated, but I shall avenge her and end your lies. And once you are gone, the inhabitants of your planet will become slaves of Lorwardia!"

The alien flipped a switch and the room was suddenly bathed in light. Drakken squinted and looked around, gasping when he saw the one thing he had been seeking.

Shego was in a far corner, strapped to an inclined table with some sort of purple goo gagging her. She was restrained at her wrists, forearms, and upper arms, as well as her ankles, shins, thighs, and waist. The ceiling above her was scorched and had a few holes where she had clearly made an effort to escape her bonds, but obviously those attempts had failed.

"Shego!" Drakken cried and started toward her.

Warmaven stepped in front of him. "Oh no, not until I tell you why I have taken her."

Draken raised a brow, and Ron stepped up next to him. "You know, these guys could use some lessons in villainy. Though not from you, since you know, you always get stopped when you start ranting about your plan—"

"Hngh, Quiet!" Drakken shouted, causing Ron to jump back.

"How about we skip the rant and just get to the escaping," Kim said, having sneaked around one of the larger pieces of machinery and now standing atop the pallet where Shego was restrained. She had taken off one space suit glove to access her battle suit and had morphed her hand into a scoop, which was ready and hovering above Shego's hand.

The green villainess needed no further explanation and shot her glow into the scoop, where Kim expertly deflected it down where it impacted one of Shego's ankles and released it.

Shego glared and hummed something behind her gag that Kim didn't catch, and she started peeling away at the gag.

"Warmaven!" the battle cry of the alien sounded just as Kim pulled the purple goo off of Shego's mouth, but not in time to protect herself. The alien backhanded Kim harshly and she hit the wall opposite and fell with a thud.

"KP! Are you all right!?" Ron shouted, running toward her.

"Free my _hand_, not my foot!" Shego snarled, her words coming out weak and followed by a cough.

"You shall be free, False One, as soon as my sister is avenged," Warmaven said, approaching Shego.

Drakken felt a rising panic, that whatever the alien would do to Shego she wouldn't be able to prevent. "F-flower, attack!" he cried.

The vine sprang from his back and Warmaven turned with a snarl as the vine began to rapidly wind around her. She reached her long arm forward and depressed a purple button on a console, and suddenly red lasers were firing from every corner of the room.

Drakken yelped as they hit him and his vine. The vine retreated instinctively as he dove beneath another console for cover, and found to his annoyance that Stoppable was hiding under there too.

"Warmaven!" the alien shouted her battle cry again, and Drakken looked out to see Kim Possible fighting the giantess hand-to-hand. He turned with a frown toward Ron.

"So where's your monkey mumbo-jumbo, hm?"

"It's Mystical Monkey Power, and I'm trying!" Ron shouted desperately. "I'm still figuring out how it works!"

The lasers stopped. Drakken crawled out from under the console and crept around its back until he was on the opposite side from where the fight was occurring. He quietly ordered his vine toward Shego. "Flower, free her! Break those bindings!"

The vine wrapped around and around the metal strap on her other ankle, tightening until it snapped.

"I said free my _hands!"_ Shego complained through gritted teeth, a bit too loudly because Warmaven turned with a frown and kicked Drakken away and into another console.

He fell with a groan, barely registering the shocked gasps of his allies in the room.

"Dr. D.!?"

He blinked, his vision blurry and tried to pick himself up. But _everything_ hurt now. He let himself fall to the deck again. Maybe in a few minutes...

"Hm," Warmaven frowned as she hit Kim aside once again. "I fail to see why my sister and Warhok could not defeat you. You are weak opponents."

Drakken felt an instinctual panic and forced himself to his knees, blinking rapidly in an attempt to get his eyes to focus. When they finally did he saw Warmaven standing right next to Shego holding a device that appeared to be meant to give injections.

"As I was saying, it is due to this False One that Warmonga was defeated."

"Wait, uh, I think someone told you a different story," Ron said, leaving Kim's side and starting forward again. "It's Drakken and I who have the cool super powers, we're the ones who defeated you. You kidnapped the...uh...the wrong person," he finished warily and dashed back to the far wall, where Kim was standing up again.

"No. It is only _this_ one who has the power to defeat our technology. This power can only be given by the Great Blue. But she uses it against us. She is one of the False Ones and you will bear witness as she is destroyed!"

Warmaven set the injection device against Shego's neck. Drakken jumped up, but stumbled in pain with his first step, falling to the deck again.

"Shego!" he cried as her face twisted in pain.

Drakken crawled on hands and knees, his eyes never leaving her as he watched a horrifying scene unfold. Shego's eyes went wide even as her pupils contracted and she began writhing against the bindings. Pained gasps escaped her lips as her hands began glowing more brightly than Drakken had ever seen, and she closed her eyes tightly, her head beginning to thrash back and forth. When she opened her eyes again, they were glowing green and full of fear.

Kim and Ron rushed to Drakken's side, the blond helping the mad scientist to his feet as the teen hero advanced another step on the alien amazon.

"What did you do to her!?" Kim demanded.

"She never should have had the power of the Great Blue. She will now be overwhelmed by it and destroy herself. And I shall enjoy watching her pain."

Shego's glow had become so intense that it was melting the restraints at her wrists simply due to proximity. In moments she was able to pull her hands through them and quickly fired at the rest of her bindings and fell to the floor, finally free. But where her hands hit the floor the metal alloy of the deck began to melt.

With a gasp she stood up and staggered toward the closest support beam, pain written on her face with every step. Her rescuers' eyes went wide as they saw the deck beginning to melt everywhere her feet made contact.

"Shego?" Drakken said, taking a few cautious steps toward her.

She threw up her hands in a halting gesture to stop him, and even as she did so a faint glow began to envelop her entire body. Suddenly she fell with a cry, and she gasped in shock to see that her feet had melted through the deck and she was falling through.

She looked up at Drakken, and then to Kim. "Help me!" she cried weakly.

"There is no help for you," Warmaven said smugly.

Shego growled and rolled away from where she had been slipping through the floor. Her entire body alight now, she rushed toward Warmaven in a rage, firing nearly continuous blasts as she went.

The alien leapt out of the way and cackled in amusement as the green blasts destroyed the defense lasers on the wall opposite.

"Do as much damage as you wish. You only have a few minutes left to do it," Warmaven said as she ran through a door which closed soundly behind her.

Shego fired a long blast at the door, nearly obliterating it, but then with a choked cry she fell down to the deck, her body spasming in pain. Kim fired her wrist grapple to surround Shego, but the wire melted almost instantly on contact with her glowing body. She looked over at Drakken, worry written on her face.

Drakken thought he understood that look. But he didn't want to. There was no way he would accept that Shego was... That they couldn't save her.

"Hey, KP..." Drakken and Kim turned toward Ron, "Rufus isn't looking too good."

They all looked at the pink rodent draped over the side of Ron's space suit collar, definitely looking sick.

"And come to think of it...I've got the tummy wobbles," Ron said, suddenly gripping his stomach.

Kim likewise held one hand to her stomach and the other to her head. "Me too...and my head hurts."

At that moment, the Kimmunicator beeped and Kim peered down at her wrist to answer the call.

_"Kim!"_ Wade said, his eyes wide with panic. _"The suit is picking up high levels of radiation! It's 120 rems and climbing. You have to get out of there!"_

"Radiation..." Kim said in confusion. At once, all eyes turned to Shego, who was writhing on the ground like an electrocuted snake, the deck melting everywhere her glowing body touched. She managed to roll onto her stomach and look up at Kim, her body shaking violently both from pain and the effort it took to hold still.

"Go!" she shouted.

Kim bit her lip, her eyes betraying her indecision.

"You heard her, you can't help me. Get out of here!"

_"Kim, you have to go _now_ or you'll all suffer permanent damage. Maybe fatal!"_

Kim frowned deeply and took a step toward Shego. "I...I'm sorry!" she cried.

She turned and grabbed Ron's arm, dragging him after her as they jumped through the hole in the door and followed after the alien.

"You too, Drakken! Go!" Shego cried through gritted teeth, attempting to turn toward her boss. She rolled away from him as the deck beneath her began to give way, her body spasming as she did so until she stopped in another clear spot and looked up at him again, her entire frame trembling violently. Then her eyes widened.

Drakken's vine had sprouted at least four new branches and each one was coiling around his limbs tightly. Even his torso was thickly covered in vines and barely any of his face was showing, with just his nose and one eye visible and a tuft of his hair sticking out the top.

"Mmhmfm hmm fm!" he tried to say behind the vines, but they had completely covered his mouth.

"Ngh!" Shego grunted in pain. "Guess they _are_—hn!—killer plants. Tell them to let you go!" she cried breathlessly.

Drakken couldn't speak, but he merely thought the command and obediently the vines started to unwind, but not completely. They still surrounded him but no longer restricted his movement, and he could speak again.

"I— I'm not leaving without you!" he said shakily.

Shego rose unsteadily to her feet and stumbled toward him, but she fell almost immediately into a nearby support beam and then staggered back against a console. Everywhere her body touched left melted and charred evidence of her out of control radioactivity.

"You have to go now!" she cried, staggering toward him again and collapsing, the violent writhing finally ended.

"I'm not as sick as the others!" he argued, and it was true. He only felt a very mild nausea and it had only just started.

"I'll melt through anything I touch. I'll destroy your ship and you won't make it back," she said, letting her cheek drop against the deck. "Please, Dr. D.! Please go!" she begged.

She stretched one hand toward him and then it fell to the deck as her eyes slipped closed. Drakken took a step toward her and then stopped. The vines were coiling tightly around him again.

He looked at the pink flower hovering near his ear. "Why aren't I sick like the others?"

An answer spoke into his consciousness, that the vines were resistant to radiation. And with that, an idea struck him.

"Then...you get Shego! Now!"

The secondary vines released him again to the point he could move while the main vine snaked towards Shego, lifting her from the ground just as she was about to fall through the melting deck. He watched as the vine coiled 'round and 'round her until only her head was visible, her hair falling limply down her back as the vine lifted her body into the air.

"That's better," Drakken said shakily. "Now we...we have to find a cure," he said, rushing through the hole in the door the way Kim and Ron and the alien had went.

On his blind race through the ship he spotted the escape pods and made note of them, knowing he would need one later.

James wouldn't wait for him. James would make sure his daughter was safe.

He reached the end of a hallway and what looked like a type of elevator. It was small, but he managed to get himself and the vine-wrapped Shego inside. He chose the top level and waited anxiously while the elevator shot upward, the strange forces of the artificial gravity making his stomach more nauseous than the radiation.

He was rewarded when the elevator doors opened and he found himself at the back of the alien bridge. Warmaven sat calmly in a chair near the front where a broad window showed the vastness of the stars beyond, and a busy control panel flashed with all of its variously colored indicator lights.

At the sound of his intrusion Warmaven turned, and acting on his will the vines held Shego high above his head as he approached the alien confidently.

"Give me the cure!"

Warmaven actually looked afraid. She shook her head. "There isn't one."

"_Give_ me the _cure!"_ he shouted, raising Shego higher and closer to Warmaven's face.

The alien shook her head again. "There is none!"

Drakken's face slowly fell as he realized it was true. Whatever she had done...she only planned for destruction. Just like the apparent goal of their entire species.

He stepped around Warmaven toward the control panel, who was backing away in fear. And then, he gave a subconscious command to the vine that held Shego aloft.

In a move more quick and adept than he could have hoped for, the vine loosened and dropped Shego down on the control panel. The intense radiation from her glowing body immediately began eating through the ship's controls.

"No!" cried Warmaven, but she held her ground. It was clear that she wasn't immune to the radiation anymore than humans were.

A moment later, the ship seemed to lose its orbital integrity and began drifting. Drakken's vine grabbed Shego again, the console a ruin beneath her, and then he ran for it.

Down the elevator again and back the way he had come, he chanced to see the familiar white space ship departing at high speed as he ran through the corridor. The Possibles had left him after all.

He stumbled suddenly and braced himself against the wall. He realized then that his head was hurting and he was more nauseous than he'd been before.

The radiation was getting to him.

Only a minute later he was in an escape pod and smashing buttons to get it to launch. It did, and the small craft rapidly left the Lorwardian mother ship behind to whatever fate would come to it after the damage he had done. Drakken pushed buttons more cautiously now that the craft was moving, discovering the ones he needed and turning the tiny craft toward a very specific destination.

A few minutes into the ride, he leaned to the side of the chair and threw up bile and scant remains of the fancy dinner he'd been served at the UN hours before.

The escape pod burst through the clouds and he guided it skillfully now down to his Alpine lair, still surrounded by flowers. He found that he was getting tired and figured it was due to concentrating on his vines both wrapping around him for safety and keeping Shego from touching anything in the escape pod.

She hadn't even blinked since passing out on the alien ship and he was only a few breaths away from panic.

After landing, he raced into the chill of the lair and had the vines set her down far from his workstation. He ordered the vines already growing in the lair to take over the task of holding her and they immediately obeyed, to his great relief. There were so many more vines in the lair than he could create from his person due to the explosion earlier in the week, and he watched in fascination as they continued wrapping around and around Shego until she was sealed within a green cocoon, hidden entirely from his sight.

"Ah...she can breathe in there, can't she?" he asked his flower.

The tiny bud nodded, and he sighed in relief as he turned toward his computer and began pulling up the formula for his plant mutagen. He mopped at his brow with the back of his sleeve and found it was ineffective. He impatiently scrambled out of the space suit, feeling more and more nauseous from the movement, but he was also too hot. He had to get out of it.

Once free he sat heavily in his chair and wiped the sweat from his face. He was definitely feeling the effects of radiation poisoning. But the vines...seemed to be absorbing most of it. It was the only explanation for why he wasn't dead.

He stared at the formula on the screen, clearly resistant to nuclear radiation—and then it hit him. The aliens had turned Shego into a living nuclear reactor. And nuclear reactors overloaded unless the reaction was stopped, or the fuel ran out, or unless the radiation was absorbed at a faster rate than it was being put out.

He spun in his chair and looked at the vines again. It was working...but it wasn't enough.

"Put...Shego in the hot tub," he said, surprised at the weakness of his own voice. The vines obediently began gently rolling her cocoon toward the ridiculous hot tub she'd insisted on having in the lab and he rose and followed slowly, nausea overcoming him with his first step. But he had to see that this was done right.

When they arrived the vines had stopped short, and Drakken saw that the tub was frozen over.

"Hynghh..." he muttered, and slammed his fist against the ice. It cracked, and he hit it twice more before it broke entirely. Then the vines rolled Shego's cocoon up and into the freezing water. "Make sure she can breathe!"

The instant she was in the water steam began rising. Somehow, the vines knew which end of the cocoon was up, and one of its narrow points bobbed just above the surface. Drakken realized the water would soon evaporate with the heat she was giving off and he would need to get the water turned on.

He turned to find the controls on the side of the tub, but another wave of nausea caused him to fall to his knees. As he pulled himself up to lean against the side of the tub he looked again at the thick columns of steam and was suddenly overwhelmed with despair.

Who was he kidding? The water would have to be _inside_ her to help slow the reaction process, but doing that would kill her too. All he had done with the vines was slow the inevitable.

He wasn't...going to be able to save her.

It was with that crushing feeling of failure that he passed out.

* * *

Drakken opened his eyes to pitch blackness. It was night in the Alps. He was freezing and felt horribly sick.

"Shego?" he whispered.

There was no response.

"Flower...ugh...find me some light."

He was startled as suddenly his vine pulled him to his feet, and he fought against nausea as he felt the flower guiding him through the darkness. He noticed that each step was very slow and he wondered if that was for his benefit, or if his flower was sick too.

It was only a few minutes before his hands found the backup generator, which he turned on gratefully. Light flooded the lair, and he hurried back faster than his stomach would have liked to see Shego.

When he reached the hot tub he saw that it was still being fed water. The controls, which he had passed out before reaching, had been turned on.

"Thank you, flower," he said quietly. He looked over his shoulder and saw that the leaves on his vine were white at the edges. He also realized that the vines which had been wrapped around his limbs protecting him were gone too.

The vines weren't entirely impervious, he realized. And his eyes widened when he finally looked at Shego's cocoon. The vines hadn't moved from their place of surrounding her, but the outermost vines of the cocoon were shriveled and their color was a mixture of white and gray. The innermost vines that were closest to Shego had shriveled up as if mummified, and he could see through them to where she lie inside. He leaned forward and pried some of the vines back to get a closer look at her.

She wasn't glowing anymore. But her eyes were closed and he couldn't detect any movement from her in the water.

"Bring her out," he said quietly. The discolored vines started to shift, but then halted abruptly. He noticed that the shriveled ones had no reaction at all. The radiation was overwhelming them.

With his own hands he grabbed at the cocoon and tugged on it until it rolled out of the hot tub, bumping into him and knocking him backward to the ground. It stopped its roll against his shins.

"Can I...cut these vines off her?" he asked his flower. It nodded. "It's going to hurt you, isn't it."

The flower nodded again, and Drakken looked down in remorse. He understood suddenly that the vines that were most shriveled were dead, and that all of the vines he had created were somehow connected. And in saving Shego, he was doing them harm.

The pink bud slowly bloomed in front of him and then lightly lifted his chin up and turned his head toward Shego. And he knew it understood.

He searched around the lair until he found a saw and began cutting the dead vines off. The merely damaged ones slowly retreated on their own, until finally Shego was completely free.

She lay on the bed of dead vines, still un-moving. Drakken reached for her, and then hesitated. He took off one of his gloves and dangled it against her cheek, holding it there for nearly a minute. When he pulled it back and examined it, it was fully intact. She wasn't melting things on contact anymore.

He replaced the glove and reached two fingers beneath her chin to feel for a pulse. Even through the glove he was surprised at the intense heat of her skin. Clearly there was more repair work that needed to be done. And faintly, beneath his fingertips, he felt the indication of life.

A great weight lifted out of his chest as he felt the pulsing of her blood through the vein, and he wondered if somehow, he had pulled off another unlikely miracle. Slowly, his own vines began surrounding her until they were just enough to lift her and set her back into the cold waters of the hot tub. He felt the great strain it was on the vines to accomplish the task, and the instant it was done he sat down against the tub and passed out for a second time, steam rising around him.

* * *

"Drakken? Come on, wake up Dr. D."

Drakken gasped and lurched forward, suddenly awake at the sound of her voice. He turned quickly to see her sitting up, pushing her wet hair out of her face.

"Why am I in a cold hot tub...wrapped in your vines?"

Drakken quickly stood—too quickly, as he was forced to lean against the side of the tub when nausea immediately struck—and a moment later offered her a hand to get out of the tub. She took it, using it for balance while her other hand brushed away the vines until she could step free.

When she was out, Drakken silently called his flower back to him. But it didn't move, the length of the vine remaining limp in the hot tub.

"What happened?" Shego asked, looking around at the dead and dying vines littering the floor. "I mean...how am I alive?"

Drakken licked his dry lips and spoke. "Warmaven...turned you into an overloading nuclear reactor. I put you in the water to slow down the reaction if possible. And the vines...absorb radiation really well. I apparently created them with a certain level of resistance..."

"But if I was an overloading nuclear reactor...how am I alive?" she asked again.

"Whatever Warmaven gave you...must have simply burned out. It does make me wonder, though. Perhaps your power is from a far milder and more controlled nuclear reaction...that occurs in you naturally because of the...comet, was it?"

Shego lifted her hands and Drakken expected her to power them up, but they stayed dormant. She gasped. Drakken looked at her quizzically and realized that her skin was somehow paler, and less green.

"I...can't use my power," Shego said, staring at her hands.

Drakken's eyes widened to match hers. "Maybe...whatever the alien gave you...burned out whatever gave you your power to begin with."

She stared away with unfocused eyes. Drakken watched as the bright, green pools slowly filled with tears until finally she sat down and leaned back against the hot tub, crying softly.

Drakken bit his lip. The only other time he had seen Shego cry was when she'd been under a form of mind control from Bortel's moodulator. He wasn't sure what to do, but finally settled on sitting next to her and setting a hand on her shoulder.

A few minutes passed until he heard her sniffle and she looked up at him, resting her head on her bent knees.

"How did you know what to do?"

"Ah...I didn't," he admitted, rubbing the back of his neck and feeling the limp vine just beneath his collar. "After I saw that my vines could carry you and we could escape, I just...guessed. Based on...what I know about nuclear reactions, of course."

She frowned then. "Why _did_ you bring me back? Didn't you know you could have died?"

He looked away. He was beginning think that it was entirely possible...that he would anyway. But he didn't tell her that.

"I couldn't leave you," he said, looking back at her.

A strange look came into her eyes that he couldn't read, and almost too quickly she stood up. "You hungry?" she asked.

He felt too sick to eat, but realized it would be better if he did. "Yes," he said. He stood up to follow her and then felt the tug of his vine, still limp from the hot tub. He began gathering it and carefully coiling it in his arms.

"What's wrong with that thing?"

Drakken looked at the wet and discolored plant in his arm as he leaned back against the hot tub's rim, nausea coming over him again. He met Shego's eyes and saw the calculation there. He wasn't going to be able to get this past her.

"I...I have radiation sickness. The plants aren't...completely resistant," he admitted.

He was surprised to see fear in her eyes. "What do we do about it?"

He hung his head. "Probably nothing. As sick as I feel, it's...it's probably fatal."

He stared at the discolored vine again, thinking that her life was more than worth his. He realized a few moments later that she hadn't said anything, and his ears suddenly perked up as he heard her quick, heavy breaths.

"That's not an option," she finally said. "I'm going to find some help," she said, turning on her heel and stalking away from him.

"No, Shego..." he went after her to protest. He followed her out of the lair and into the living room. She was headed toward the phone, but on her way she stepped on the TV remote that had somehow ended up on the ground.

The giant TV flickered to life and they both turned at the startling noise, distracted from their current course by the image of the screen. It showed enormous framed photos of themselves mounted on a pedestal that was surrounded by flowers, and what must have been hundreds of people holding candles.

_"The vigil for the world's lost heroes, Dr. Drakken and Shego, continues here in New York the day after their second dramatic rescue of all mankind. The public memorial service is scheduled for next Saturday in Middleton, Colorado. And as the vigil continues, more testimonials from their friends, and loved ones."_

Drakken stumbled to the fur-covered couch, his churning stomach not allowing him to stand anymore, and dropped the vine next to him as he sat down. The vine began a slow, laborious retreat within him.

_"With us now, Dr. James Possible of Middleton, to reflect on his friendship with Dr. Drakken."_

_"Well we weren't really friends, you see,"_ Dr. Possible said into a microphone. His face had lost all its usual joviality as he talked to the reporter. _"In college he was the nerd. I know that sounds ridiculous, considering we went to M.I.S.T., but my friends and I thought that we were the cool ones and that he was just...a nerd. We teased him for no reason. I guess it's...somewhere in human nature to put others down. I've regretted it for almost twenty years. And now I...I'll never get the chance to apologize. To let Drew know he was every bit the scientist as any of us."_

Drakken felt Shego sit down near him and glanced over at her. Her face was glued to the screen where a helicopter showed continual footage of the candlelight vigil while the interviews were shown on the other half of the screen.

_"My sister definitely marched to the beat of her own drum. Even when she was on the side of good, she was always a rebel. I worried she would influence our younger brothers. But they've all stayed strong through the years. I couldn't say what caused her to choose evil. It's a question I've never been able to answer. I keep asking myself...was it something I did? Could I have done or said something different? But...eventually I accepted reality. No matter how well you think you raise them, they'll still choose their own path someday. I'm just glad she found a place she was happy."_

Drakken looked at Shego again when Hego had finished speaking. Her jaw was set tightly and her fingers were clenched into the fur-covered cushion.

Several more pre-taped interviews were played. The one from his mother made him cry, while the one from cousin Eddie made him cringe. All of Shego's brothers spoke, saying mostly the same thing.

Drakken realized that nearly half an hour had gone by, and his vine was almost fully back inside him.

_"We'll close this special program tonight with a word from teen hero Kim Possible, who was the longtime nemesis of Dr. Drakken and Shego."_

_"Shego was great,"_ Kim said, _"There was this one time that a machine turned her good for about a week, and we hung out all the time. It was like having a big sister."_

_"A much older big sister!"_ Ron Stoppable interrupted, leaning in front of the camera.

_"Ron!"_

_"Yeah, Shego was pretty awesome,"_ Ron continued, standing in front of Kim now. _"I always admired her for going after what she wanted in life, and not letting anyone shut her down, you know? And Drakken was the same. He wasn't afraid to be himself, even after failing so. many. times. And he was totally comfortable with who he was. And he liked 'Snowman Hank' which needs to be put back on the air this Christmas! You hear me, network executives!?"_

_"Anyway,"_ Kim said, stepping in front of Ron again, _"I always felt like they had something good left inside them. And they proved it. And...and I'm going to miss them."_

Kim teared up at the last, and the news anchor closed the program with a final shot of the candlelight vigil and some unknown hymn being sung by a choir in the background.

Shego stood up and started looking around the room for a phone. "We need to get you to a hospital. Is the phone in the kitchen?"

She started for the door and Drakken lunged across the sofa, grabbing her arm to stop her. She looked at him in bewilderment as he stood to face her, his face grim.

"Shego. I would rather...d-die a hero...than dwindle for a few days in a hospital surrounded by strangers."

He looked away bitterly. Of course he didn't want his life to end, but...he didn't have the choice at this point. He at least wanted the choices still available to him. "I'd rather just...spend the time here with you."

He realized suddenly how that could have sounded and was glad he hadn't been looking at her. His cheeks flushed regardless, and he wondered if she would hurt him for the idle comment even though he was dying.

Several seconds passed in silence, and he glanced up at her. She was staring at him with that unreadable look again. He felt a lump forming in his throat. Why did she have to make this hard?

"Please...d-don't let anyone...dissect me for science, when I'm gone."

She blinked once, and then the unthinkable happened. She started crying. Again.

He watched in confusion as she stepped toward him, her eyes sad and yet uncertain. She reached forward cautiously and grabbed at the front of his coat.

"Shego?"

A moment later her face was in his chest as her tears stained the front of his coat.

"I...I don't..." she said quietly, her voice hoarse, "I don't want you to die."

He blinked. "I don't want me to die, either."

She stepped back suddenly and hit his chest with her fist. "Then why won't you _do_ anything about it!?"

"I told you why," he said, his eyes pleading her understanding.

"Have you just...given up on living?" she asked incredulously, hitting him again, albeit weaker this time.

He blinked. "What else is there to live for? I've saved the world twice and I'm a lauded hero. It's a good ending. I don't want the world's last memory of me to be as a lost cause in a sick bed!"

The vine finished its retreat into his neck and he shifted uncomfortably on his feet, feeling the mutant plant sliding amid his human anatomy.

Shego turned suddenly and stepped away, her arms wrapped tightly around herself.

"What if...you had something else to live for?"

"Like what?" he asked.

She turned to face him again, tears still on her cheeks. She was shaking again, the way she had when the alien contaminant had first entered her bloodstream.

"Shego, are you all right?" he asked worriedly.

She approached him purposefully and set her arms around his neck. His eyes widened in confusion. She stood on tiptoe and met his eyes fully. Her gaze was intense, and he found himself suddenly afraid.

"I know it's selfish..." she said, glancing away for just a moment. "But would you live for me?"

"...Shego?"

She kissed him, leaving him completely stunned. He watched as the tears continued down her cheeks while her lips softly caressed his. Finally she pulled away, and he took a few cautious breaths.

"You don't...have to make up feelings you don't have, to convince me to try to live."

"I'm not making it up," she said, shaking her head. She stretched her arms further around his neck and pulled herself more tightly against him, and he felt her trembling. "I think...I think I love you."

Drakken's lips parted in a silent gasp. There was no lie in her eyes.

"And since...since you were willing to die for me, I think you might love me too."

Behind them the big screen TV was showing aerial clips of the worldwide destruction caused by the first alien attack.

"What if...what if I die anyway?" he asked, his arms unconsciously wrapping around her.

"Then, at least we have right now. But I still want tomorrow," she insisted, and kissed him again. The intensity knocked him off balance, and he fell backward onto the sofa and brought her with him. He brushed her wet hair out of his face and looked into her eyes, still pleading with him.

Slowly, the uncertainty melted out of his face and was replaced with a shy smile. Her own was confident as she stroked his jaw with her thumb, snuggling into him. And then she kissed him as if the world was going to end.

* * *

One month later, Shego walked out of the Mayo Clinic with Drakken leaning on her arm for support, smiling down at her as she gazed up at him adoringly. His hair was much thinner and there was less of it, and his plant mutation was no more, but neither of them cared. On her finger she wore a diamond ring.

the end.

* * *

_**A/N: So the Tumblr prompt specifically was for Shego to become radioactive to the point she damages everything, and Drakken's vines are the only thing that can touch her, and will he man up in the situation. Everything else about the story is my brainchild and I'm very proud of it, especially the whole alien plot.**_


End file.
